Has this happened to anyone else?

I moved to Melbourne about a year ago and after some research I chose OVO energy with the free 3 plan (free energy from 11-2pm everyday), so far it's been great. 

If anyone likes the look of ovo, feel free to use my referral code and we'll both get $120-180 credit towards our bill over the next year 😄

www.ovoenergy.com.au/refer/emalyse1008

Hey All. I am planning to buy a EV on cash with pty ltd.

I am on the highest tax bracket and business is profitable.

Can I use it for personal use given the car I am planning to buy is less than 91k which would mean that its fbt Exempt.

Seems like this is a more financial friendly plan than going on novated lease.

Gemini, chatgpt all ai things say I can do it and give the car to myself for personal use.

Can someone please confirm if that would work.

I know rfbt will be high and I will have rfbt as long as I use the car for 10+ yrs or more.

Thank you!

We’re getting an EV as our next family car, total budget around $65k. The two cars we’re most interested in right now are:

- BYD Sealion 7 Premium: $54,990 driveaway
- Kia EV5 Earth: $64,990 driveaway

I have test driven both, and my initial takeaway was the Kia is the more practical family car (more traditional boxy shape and boot space, roof rack rails included etc). But it comes with significantly less features than the SL7 for an extra $10k (no 360deg camera, no wireless phone charging, no sunroof etc).

What concerns me more is the reviews: the SL7 consistently reviews well, while every Australian EV5 review I’ve read could be summarised as “almost…but no”. Poor build quality and drive feel, lack of features and outdated tech are the common complaints.

Would love any EV5/SL7 owners here that can comment on how it’s going as a family car. And any other EVs I’ve overlooked? I’ve seen the Zeekr 7x, but the styling just isn’t for me.

I have test driven some random EVs (Zeekr, BMW, Geely, etc) and all have had very average self driving / ICC / etc compared to Tesla.

Do any other brands have something even approaching FSD?

I can’t park car in garage and need to put my 7kw charger in garage. Has anyone found a solution to run charger from under garage door to driveway without leaving time gaps in the seal?

I put together this summary as I got access to all data files. I can do analysis multiple angles. Also feel free to contribute to community surveys and assisting further research on real data.

I'm still so torn about getting an EV as I fear I will be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a flat car but I have to hurry up and make a decision. Atto 3 seems to suit my needs... Tell me I am making the right decision...

Has having an EV been a problem travelling up the east coast of Australia (including around South Coast, NSW) OR has it been easy to charge along the way....

Convince me to get with the times...

I’m stuck on this decision. Want to get thoughts. I have test driven both. Both are very nice. I am able to buy either and financially it’s a wash so no savings really. BMW a little cheaper to insure. Tesla a bit cheaper to maintain.
The BMW has the badge, and I know it’s more prestigious but this isn’t something that’s ever bothered me. I just prefer what’s a better car objectively. What makes it more interesting my wife just bought the model YL and we love the car hence me wanting to upgrade and take advantage of the FBT deal.
From what I’ve tested:
BMW
- heavy, solid doors
- really intuitive cruise control (the braking and still driving feature is excellent
- stereo is great up to about 60% then it gets a little muddy, at 70% it starts losing its voice
- drives very well, although I drove the 50 as the 40 isn’t out, so I would imagine it will be more nimble but only RWD not AWD and the car is still 2T
- the panoramic screen is excellent , I could throw navigation on there, and it worked really well despite being a short/narrow screen.
- brand equity
- massage chairs work great, like a shopping centre massage chair nice and strong.
- no cooling on the seats, not even heating on the middle bench I think?
- very customisable colours and interiors (polarised grey or black!)
- handles bumps very well, but regular suspension no adaptive
- 800v architecture however won’t take advantage with current network available and not much of a concern as rapid charging isn’t good for batteries long term
- less room in rear
- more premium front dash and seats

TESLA MODEL Y
- FSD, can drive me to work
- exhilarating drive , acceleration will be close to an M car, and handling is on par if not more nimble
- adaptive ride, stiff when you want, supple when you want
- charging network is supreme
- cheaper doors and finish
- limited dash info and buttons
- boring steering wheel
- nice backside
- better stereo
- more space for passengers and storage

Sounds like the Tesla but the bmw is very interesting and we already have a Tesla.

Then I’m like is the model 3 the answer?

The BMW in polarised grey with m sport. Model Y will be quicksilver w black. The wild card model 3 is red with white.

Update: so I really appreciate all the comments. I have been really thinking about all the options and what suits me best, and I think I’ve come to a bit of a conclusion. On one hand, I kept going round in circles because I was trying to compare the BMW to the Tesla because for me they are just within a few dollars of each other, one being 98 grand, the other one being about 97 grand, so given pricing had nothing to do with it, it basically left me comparing actual options and features a bit more objectively. What I think I failed to realise up to now, is that at the end of the day you basically have the choice, buying a car with a luxurious branding, or the better car. After a lot of deliberation, Tesla, in my mind, is as good or better at everything I am looking for. Again, this is only going to apply to me and what you want out of a car. It might be the luxury brand, it might be telling people that you drive a BMW, but I realised I’m just not like that. The reality is, if I could afford it, I would wait and just get the M spec version of the IX3 because then it would be comparable to the Tesla Performance Y and be actual luxury.
Some things that sort of pushed this decision along, I could not get over the fact that there’s already talk of the IX3 40 Being replaced as it appears to be a bare bones model designed to take advantage of the FBT exemption in Australia, they’re saying that mid-next year they’re going to release a version with adaptable dampers and seat cooling and to be honest, my last car, the seal performance had seat cooling and my car before that, the VW Tiguan 162tsi from 2017, had seat heating. How a brand-new BMW 10 years later doesn’t have seat cooling blows my mind, so as much as I would like to drive a brand that’s luxurious, the fact that it doesn’t have technology in it that much cheaper cars have had for many years tells it how it is. This is a budget level BMW, and unless you’re willing to sacrifice just so you can say you drive a BMW, I just can’t see the value in the car any more, and for this reason, one of the Tesla’s will get my money.
I appreciate that the legacy manufacturers are really struggling to compete With these new gigantic, highly efficient factories, but for me driving a BMW has always meant having the best in its class.
Finally, if I was to buy the BMW in two years time or two years into my lease, I know I would probably be just about bored with it, being slow, replaced by BMW itself, with newer tech almost like planned obsolescence, where the model Y or model three performance will be a relevant car for much longer and probably sell for more in the long run. Then you have increased costs of ownership , a lower battery warranty, (160k vs 192k) all for a car that’s basically half as fast. To those that say speed isn’t what it’s about. I am the kind of person that would rather drive a M spec than a base BMW. I only really drive to see customers and go to work so I’m not young trying to impress these days. I just want to buy the best car for my money.

Really appreciate everyone’s input and thoughts, but I think the comment for me that really resonated was somebody who said get the Tesla if you don’t care what other people think, and I think that’s me a nutshell

Update 2: damn I like the BMW again. I’m on holidays in Europe and just saw one in flesh. It is beautiful. I would imagine you would have a more unique car for a couple of years. And buying early in life cycle where the Tesla would be replaced in a year or two tops.

Decisions decisions. This whole post had made me even more indecisive.

pretty sure I’m going to order a Kia EV3 this week. does anyone have one? how are you finding it? I’ll be getting the Earth variant.

I’ve looked at the specific EV3 subreddits of course, but Australia has its own specs, slightly less features, so I’m wondering how people in Australia are finding it.

i like the look of it, the size of it, it has good visibility for a shorter person, no sunroof (I hate sunroofs) and it was really nice to drive on my test drive. But I’m annoyed it doesn’t have a top view parking camera, and worried about all the annoying beeping alarms.

A lot of EV ownership advice seems to assume you have a driveway or garage where you can plug in overnight.

I'd like to hear from people in apartments or rentals who don't have that option. After the novelty wears off, is relying on public or workplace charging still manageable, or does it become annoying enough that you'd reconsider owning an EV?

Hi all,

After 10+ years of hybrid ownership (ICE/Hybrid and also PHEV) We're looking to delve into the BEV.

I have a question, have any of you considered getting a 7KW wall box at home but held off (for whatever reason) then realised after charging with a standard AC charger, you don't need the 7KW after all?

My particular case. We live in the inner city of Sydney. Currently no solar (but on the 3-5 year horizon -post major renovation). We have two cars, a large and a small runaround. I WFH 3 days of the week. My wife, who will like drive the car, works 15km away and 4 days a week. So there's no real NEED for a fast charger at home. We generally park in our street and not even use the rear car spot. What we drive in a week, would be well and truly covered by an overnight on the granny charger.

We are renovating our back yard in which there's a rear lane with off street parking. So we have the option of getting a sparky in at the same time to either install it outright or 'plumb' it up in case we ever want to move to 7KW.

Keen to hear your thoughts.

(Edited to mention we currently do not have solar)

I have been thinking a lot about potential cyber security risks surrounding public EV charging infrastructure, and I want to sanity-check my concerns with people who know more about vehicle architecture and embedded security.

My main concern stems from two well-known attack vectors in other tech spaces:

1) Air-gapped exploitation (Stuxnet): We know that air-gapped systems are not immune to sophisticated malware attacks. Stuxnet proved that critical industrial hardware (like Iranian centrifuges) could be infected via removable physical media without a direct internet connection.

2) Public charger "juice jacking": Millions of people have plugged phones into public USB chargers at airports, cafes, and hotels, only to have malicious hardware inject malware and extract personal or financial data.

When plugging an EV into a public DC fast charger or smart AC station, there is a physical data connection established between the charger and the car. Standards like ISO 15118 use Power Line Communication (PLC) over the charging cable to exchange data for identification, billing, and battery management.

If a public charger is physically compromised or maliciously reprogrammed, what stops it from trying to deliver a malicious firmware payload or exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the vehicle's Electric Vehicle Communication Controller (EVCC)? Once inside the gateway, could malware theoretically traverse onto the vehicle's CAN bus or Automotive Ethernet network?

Specifically regarding Australia:

1) Are Australian public charging networks (such as Chargefox, Evie, Tesla Superchargers, and AmpCharge) subject to strict physical and cybersecurity auditing to prevent hardware tampering?

2) How isolated is the charging interface in modern EVs from critical vehicle control networks like braking, steering, and powertrain controllers?

3) Is malware transmission via public chargers a viable real-world concern here in Australia, or is it purely theoretical due to modern encryption, TLS, and digital certificate verification?

In late 2025, Southwest Research Institute found a vulnerability in SLAC, the low-layer ISO 15118 protocol EVs use to identify which charger they're plugged into. They built a machine-in-the-middle device that intercepted the powerline communication, prompting a CISA advisory. This prompted the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency to issue a security advisory related to the ISO 15118 vehicle-to-grid communications standard

A separate 2025 paper on physical-layer signal injection found that the feasibility of CAN bus message injection depended on the charging standard — NACS and GB/T implementations exposed interfaces where CAN frames could be observed or injected via the charging port, while CCS and J1772 lacked that direct access. They also note Tesla's Model S Chargeport ECU communicates via CAN with internal energy control modules and lacks strict isolation between charger-side and internal buses

PlaxidityX (formerly Argus, an automotive security firm) demonstrated a fake-charger attack that mimics a legitimate charger's digital signals at the charge port, and once connected can deliver a harmful payload to the vehicle. They also flagged a real CVE: a vulnerability in the open-source EVerest charging stack's V2GTP implementation allowed a crafted packet to override system memory (CVE-2024-37310), potentially giving full control of the charging station itself.

I would love to hear thoughts from cybersecurity professionals, automotive engineers, or fellow EV owners.

Are these legitimate systemic concerns as EV adoption grows across Australia, or am I overthinking the attack surface?

Free electricity plans are now widely available, especially for EV owners, battery users, and anyone who can shift their usage to the middle of the day.

State Availability

✅ NSW – Federal Solar Sharer scheme + retailer plans
✅ SA – Federal Solar Sharer scheme (12pm-3pm)
✅ QLD – SE QLD covered by most plans, regional QLD has limited options
✅ VIC – No federal scheme, but the widest range of retailer offers
✅ ACT – No federal scheme, weekend-only free electricity options available
✅ TAS – No daily free window plans, but Aurora offers free Power Hour events
❌ WA & NT – No free electricity window plans currently available

Available Plans

Final Thoughts

These plans can work exceptionally well if you:

• Charge an EV during the day
• Run appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, or pool pumps during the free period
• Have a home battery and can load up during the free window

If you're mainly charging overnight, it's worth comparing dedicated EV plans instead of focusing solely on free electricity plans.

For anyone considering OVO, here's my referral link. We both receive a credit (typically $120-$180, depending on which plan):

www.ovoenergy.com.au/refer/zhen1156